Song Lyric Sunday: The Beatles, “Savoy Truffle”

Angie at King Ben’s Grandma gave Jim the prompt for today, “sweet, honey, sugar, candy, chocolate.” My contribution for today is The Beatles’ “Savoy Truffle,” from The Beatles, commonly called the “white album.” It’s the third song on Side 4 (record 2, side 2) and was written and sung by George Harrison.

George got the idea from watching his friend Eric Clapton, a huge chocolate fan, dig into a box of Mackintosh’s “Good News” chocolates while at George’s house. George used the names of the chocolates as listed on the lid of the box as his inspiration for the lyrics The last line of the verse, “but you’ll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle,” referred to the tooth decay that would be caused by so much chocolate which would then necessitate extraction.

The line in the second bridge verse about “Oh-Bla-Di-Bla-Da” was a minor dig at bandmate Paul McCartney, who had just about driven them crazy trying to perfect that song on the album.

Creme tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
Coffee dessert, yes, you know it’s good news
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Cool cherry cream, nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we’re apart
Coconut fudge – really blows down those blues (woo!)
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You might not feel it now
But when the pain cuts through
You’re going to know and how
The sweat is going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You’ll shout aloud

[Guitar Solo]

But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You know that what you eat you are
But what is sweet now, turns so sour
We all know Ob-La-Di-Bla-Da
But can you show me, where you are?

Creme tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
Coffee dessert, yes, you know it’s good news (woo!)
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Source: Genius

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for September 25, 2022.

Song Lyric Sunday: Little River Band, “Reminiscing” and INXS, “Need You Tonight”

G’day, mates! Today, Jim says he wants “Australian music.” I’m going to guess that means music by bands from Australia. I’m going to pick two, just in case one is duplicated, because that would just be my luck…

First, we have the Little River Band, with “Reminiscing.” Wikipedia tells us:

“Reminiscing” is a song by Australian soft rock music group Little River Band, released in June 1978 as the second single from their fourth studio album Sleeper Catcher. The song was written by the band’s guitarist, Graeham Goble, and sung by their lead singer, Glenn Shorrock. “Reminiscing” peaked at number 35 on the Australian Kent Music Report and at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100…

According to Albert Goldman’s biography, John Lennon named “Reminiscing” as one of his favourite songs. May Pang, erstwhile girlfriend of Lennon, said “Oddly, with all the fantastic music he wrote, “our song” was ‘Reminiscing’ by the Little River Band.”

I was working 3rd shift in early 1979, and when I’d get home I’d turn on WFYR, a soft rock station, and sit drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes until the song came on. I just had to hear it before I went to sleep. Don’t ask why, because I couldn’t tell you.

Friday night, it was late
I was walking you home
We got down to the gate
And I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right?
How to tell you, girl
I want to build my world around you
Tell you that it’s true
I want to make you understand
I’m talking about a lifetime plan

That’s the way it began
We were hand-in-hand
Glenn Miller’s band
Was better than before
We yelled and screamed for more
And the Porter tune (“Night and Day”)
Made us dance across the room
It ended all too soon
On the way back home
I promised you’d never be alone

Hurry, don’t be late
I can hardly wait
I said to myself when we’re old
We’ll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park
And reminiscing

Friday night, it was late
I was walking you home
We got down to the gate
And I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right?
Now as the years roll on
Each time we hear our favourite song
The memories come along
Older times we’re missing
Spending the hours reminiscing

Hurry, don’t be late
I can hardly wait
I said to myself when we’re old
We’ll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park
And reminiscing

Source: Genius

Song #2 for today is “Need You Tonight” by the band INXS. I had never heard of the song or the band until I moved to Atlanta. Apparently, they were just starting to be known here in 1987, which would coincide with the move. Wikipedia tells us:

“Need You Tonight” is a song by the Australian rock band INXS, released as the first single from their 1987 album, Kick, as well as the fourth song on the album. It is the only INXS single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also achieved their highest charting position in the United Kingdom, where the song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart; however, this peak was only reached after a re-release of the single in November 1988. On its first run on the UK charts in October 1987, it stalled at No. 58. It was one of the last songs recorded for the album, yet it would arguably become the band’s signature song.

Come over here

All you got is this moment
Twenty-first century’s yesterday
You can care all you want
Everybody does, yeah, that’s okay

So slide over here and give me a moment
Your moves are so raw, I’ve got to let you know
I’ve got to let you know
You’re one of my kind
Ow!
I need you tonight
‘Cause I’m not sleepin’
There’s something about you, girl
That makes me sweat

How do you feel? I’m lonely
What do you think? Can’t think at all
What you gonna do? Gonna live my life

So slide over here and give me a moment
Your moves are so raw, I’ve got to let you know
I’ve got to let you know
You’re one of my kind
Oh

I need you tonight
‘Cause I’m not sleepin’
There’s something about you, girl
That makes me sweat

So how do you feel? I’m lonely
What do you think? Can’t think at all
What you gonna do? Gonna live my life
How do you feel? I’m lonely
What do you think? Can’t think at all
What you gonna do? Gonna live my life

So slide over here and give me a moment
Your moves are so raw, I’ve got to let you know
I’ve got to let you know
So slide over here and give me a moment
I’ve got to let you know, I’ve got to let you know
You’re one of my kind

Source: Genius

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday and Song of the Day for September 18, 2022.

Song Lyric Sunday: Two By Allan Sherman

Jim tells us that Di wants to hear novelty songs. I suppose song parodies fit into this category, and, to my mind, the guy with the greatest song parodies was Allan Sherman. Before The Beatles stole my heart (well, whatever), Allan was my favorite recording artist. I had two of his albums, My Son The Celebrity (1963) and Allan In Wonderland (1964), and played them constantly, to the chagrin of my parents and brothers.

Allan played an important role in my musical education: he parodied popular songs from years gone by, leaving me to find out what the original song was. For example, his song “Green Stamps” was a parody of the song “Green Eyes,” originally a Spanish song, “Aquellos Ojos Verdes,” written by Adolfo Utrera and Nilo Menéndez in 1929. Eddie Rivera and Eddie Woods wrote the English lyrics for it in 1931, and it was made popular in 1941 by Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell singing with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. The parody appeared on Allan In Wonderland.

Thrill me with your green stamps
I love your little green stamps
I took collecting green stamps
I love the way they look

Oh how I love to pick them
I pick them up, and lick them
I lick them, then I stick them
In my brown green stamp book

All day and night I’m dreaming
I’m dreaming of redeeming
My green stamps for a toaster,
So gleaming and deluxe

Oh how it will thrill me,
And please me and fulfill me,
To know my toaster only cost me
Fourteen hundred bucks

I drive up to the market
I stop my car and park it
I buy a lot of strange things
Of which I’ve never heard

I buy, though it’s not urgent,
Two truckloads of detergent,
Three hundred pounds of bird seed,
Though I don’t have a bird

Some extract of vanilla,
Enough to feed Godzilla
Then I’ll trade all my green stamps
For something I can drive

A car is what I hope for,
What I bought all that soap for
They promise me the first Studebaker
Made in 1965

Source: Lyrics.com

And here is “Mexican Hat Dance,” which, as far as I know, has no words in English, until now. From My Son, The Celebrity.

Oh Americans dance on a dance floor
And the Spaniards, they dance on a table
And the Russians, they dance on a saber
But the Mexicans dance on their hats

Oh they dance on hot coals in Calcutta
In Wisconsin they dance on fresh butta,
Which they squeeze from one cow or anutta
Yes, the Mexicans dance on their hats

(Ole!)

There are Mexicans dancing on derbies
There are Mexicans dancing on caps
They just throw their fedoras
Wherever the floor is,
And start doing horas and taps

They won’t quit! They go on!
It’s a Mexican custom,
To take hats and bust ’em,
By doing a dance thereupon

Oh the reason they shot Pancho Villa
Was he danced on his mother’s mantilla
And the message did not reach Garcia
He was out somewhere dancing on hats

(Ole!)

There’s a fellow in West Acapulco,
The most elegant man you could meet
He does sambas on hombergs
To tunes of Sig Romberg’s,
And sometimes the Nutcracker Suite

So take care! So beware!
Or they’ll put castanets on
And ruin your Stetson,
‘Cause they all think they’re Fred Astaire!

If you’re ever in Mexico proper,
And you’re wearing a straw hat or topper,
When the band starts to play, call a copper,
‘Cause by now you should know
That they’ll grab your chapeau,
and they’ll stomp till it’s flat,
And that’s that!

That’s what Mexicans do on your hat

(Ole!)

Source: Lyrics.com

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday and Song of the Day for September 11, 2022.

Song Lyric Sunday: Howlin’ Wolf, “Who’s Been Talkin'”

Here at the start of the new month, Jim looks to Di, who prompts us with “sounds, talk, voice, words.” Back to the blues this week and Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howlin’ Wolf, who recorded his song “Who’s Been Talkin'” as the B side to “Tell Me,” neither of which charted. Several artists, including Robert Cray, have covered it (Cray used it as the title track for his first album).

That’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for September 4, 2022.

Song Lyric Sunday: Chicago, “Questions 67 and 68”

Greg’s Blog is once again the source of our SLS prompt. This week, Jim gives us this:

Better with Age: Failed or Overlooked Songs that Eventually Became Fan Favorites

We go back to Chicago’s first album, 1968’s The Chicago Transit Authority, and pick up the band’s first single: “Questions 67 and 68,” written by Robert Lamm and sung by bassist Peter Cetera and Lamm. This was the first single from the album, released in July 1969 and getting very little attention. I looked at the surveys from both WLS and WCFL in Chicago, and it didn’t make either one. If you can’t get the radio stations in your hometown to play your record… it did, miraculously, reach #71 on the Hot 100 and #82 on the Cash Box Top 100. After later singles met with more success, it was shortened and released again in September 1971 and reached #24 on the Hot 100 and #13 on Cash Box. Dave Swanson at Ultimate Classic Rock, writing in 2015, makes the song #9 on his “Top 10 Chicago Songs,” saying

Released in the summer of 1969, “Questions 67 And 68” was Chicago’s debut single. Coming just a few months after the LP’s release, it was met with silence at radio and retail. Yet composer and keyboardist Robert Lamm, who shares the vocal duties with bassist Peter Cetera, provides a clear early example of the signature Chicago sound.

Can this feeling that we have together
Ooh, suddenly exist between?
Did this meeting of our minds together
Ooh, happen just today, somewhere?

I’d like to know
Can you tell me? Please don’t tell me
It really doesn’t matter anyhow
It’s just that the thought of us so happy
Appears in my mind, as a beautifully mysterious thing
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Was your image in my mind so deeply?
Ooh, other faces fade away
Blocking memories of unhappy hours
Ooh, leavin’ just a burnin’ love

I’d like to know
Can you tell me? Please don’t tell me
It really doesn’t matter anyhow
It’s just that the thought of us so happy
Appears in my mind, as a beautifully mysterious thing
Got to know now, baby

Can this lovin’ we have found within us
Ooh, suddenly exist between?
Did we somehow try to make it happen
Ooh, was it just a natural thing?

I’d like to know
Can you tell me? Please don’t tell me
It really doesn’t matter anyhow
It’s just that the thought of us so happy
Appears in my mind, as a beautifully mysterious thing
Yes, it does now, baby

Questions 67 and 68